Harvey v. State

1925 OK CR 426, 238 P. 862, 31 Okla. Crim. 299, 51 A.L.R. 321, 1925 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 397
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedAugust 11, 1925
DocketNo. A-4959.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1925 OK CR 426 (Harvey v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harvey v. State, 1925 OK CR 426, 238 P. 862, 31 Okla. Crim. 299, 51 A.L.R. 321, 1925 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 397 (Okla. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinion

EDWARDS, J.

The plaintiff in error will be referred to as defendant, as in the court below.

The defendant was charged by information with the crime of bigamy. A jury was waived, and a stipulation of facts entered into, and the case submitted to the court on such stipulation.

Upon the undisputed facts as set out in the stipulation, it appears that the defendant is a muchly married individual, and given time would surpass the record of Henry VIII. The facts are about as follows: In December, 1920, the defendant, Harvey, obtained a divorce at Tulsa from Mrs. Harvey, I. On February 12, 1921, Mrs. Adams procured a divorce from her husband, and according to prior arrangements between her and the defendant, she and the defendant on February 13th went to the state of Missouri *301 and were married, she thus becoming Mrs. Harvey, 11. This was on the day following her divorce in Oklahoma. From Missouri the defendant, Harvey, and Mrs. Harvey, II, went to Kansas and lived together as husband and wife for about a year, returning to Oklahoma in February, 1922, whei e they continued to reside together as husband and wife until April 15, 1923, when Mrs. Harvey, II, departed for a visit to Illinois. On the 2d day of June, following, the defendant in Ottawa county, Okla., during the absence of Mrs. Harvey, II, married Inez Vaughn, who thereby became Mrs. Harvey, (III. Mrs, Harvey, III, lived with the defendant as his wife until the 11th of June, when, on the return of Mrs. Harvey, II, the defendant was arrested, charged with bigamy. In the stipulation it is agreed that the defendant and Mrs. Harvey, II, went to the state of Missouri for the purpose of evading the restriction in the divorce decrees in the state of Oklahoma; that they considered their marriage in Missouri legal, and there was no divorce of the defendant from Mrs. Harvey, II.

Upon this state of facts the defendant contends that, at the time of the attempted marriage between him and Mrs. Harvey, II, the parties were not competent to enter into a marriage contract, and that their attempted marriage was absolutely void, and that the relation between him and Mrs. Harvey, II, was adulterous.

The state contends, in effect, that the inhibition on marriage contained in the divorce decree of defendant and Mrs. Harvey, II, had no extra territorial effect, and that, as they did not forthwith return to the state of Oklahoma, but removed to the state of Kansas, their marriage in Missouri was legal. And that in any event, before the marriage of defendant to Mrs. Harvey, III, his relations with Mrs. Harvey, II, had ripened into a valid common-law marriage.

*302 A mere recital of the facts discloses that the conduct of the defendant is reprehensible in an extreme degree, and that his defense is such that he entitled to only what the cold letter of the law gives him. It also discloses that Mrs. Harvey, II, was an unfaithful wife to her first spouse, and abandoned her own home, and was a particeps criminis in breaking up the home of defendant. What has befallen her is in the nature of retributive justice. As to Mrs. Harvey, III, she apparently knew the marital status of the defendant at the time she entered the marriage relation with him, and is entitled to no sympathy.

However lacking in the personal equation this case may be, yet, if the marriage between the defendant and Mrs. Harvey, II, is absolutely void, both as a ceremonial or a common-law marriage, he is not guilty of bigamy. 7 C. J. 1158, 1159, § 3, note 19.

Whether or not this marriage is void both as a ceremonial or a common-law marriage is the only question for our determination. Section 510, Comp. Stat. 1921, is in part as follows:

“* * * It shall be unlawful in any event for either party to such divorce suit to marry any other person within six months from the date of the decree of divorcement; and if notice be filed and proceedings in error be commenced as hereinbefore provided, then it shall be unlawful for either party to such cause to marry any other person until the expiration of thirty days from the day on which final judgment shall be rendered pursuant to such appeal. Any person marrying contrary to the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of bigamy, and such marriage shall be absolutely void.”

Under this statute the decree of divorce is sufficient to dissolve the marriage tie at the time it is rendered, but there is an inhibition in the nature of a penalty on a marriage by the parties with any third person within 6 months from the date of the decree. A marriage v/ithin this *303 state with any other person is bigamous, but going outside of the state for the purpose of marrying and then returning to the state and thus evading the restriction of a divorce decree is not an act of bigamy of which the courts of this state can take jurisdiction under the law then in force. Wilson v. State, 11 Okla. Cr. 471, 184 P. 603; Yeates v. State, 30 Okla. Cr. 320, 236 P. 62; Atkeson v. Sovereign Camp, W. O. W., 90 Okla. 154, 216 P. 467, 32 A. L. R. 1108. The law, however, has since been amended by chapter 119, Session Laws of 1925.

By the terms of the stipulation of facts it is agreed that the defendant, Harvey, and Mrs. Harvey, II, went to the state of Missouri for the purpose of evading the laws of Oklahoma forbidding remarriage for a period of 6 months after the granting of a decree of divorce. The stipulation, however, does not disclose whether it was the intention of the defendant and Mrs. Harvey, II, to ever return to the state of Oklahoma. After their marriage in Missouri they went to the state of Kansas and resided for about one year, and then returned to this state. It is generally held that the inhibition in a decree of divorce has no extraterritorial effect, and is enforceable only in the state where the decree is granted, and that outside of such state the marriage is generally treated as valid, although there is some division in the authorities. Where, however, the parties leave the state of their domicile and go into another state and marry, for the l purpose of evading the law of the state of domicile, and I forthwith return to the state of domicile, the marriages is generally held void in the state of domicile. Stull’s Es-| tate, 183 Pa. 625, 39 A. 16, 39 L. R. A. 539, 63 Am. St. Rep. 776; Com. v. Lane, 113 Mass. 458, 18 Am. Rep. 509; State v. Fenn, 47 Wash. 561, 92 P. 417, 17 L. R. A. (N. S.) 800; Powell v. Powell, 282 Ill. 357, 118 N. E. 786; Frame v. Thormann, 102 Wis. 653, 79 N. W. 39; 176 U. S. 350, 20 S. Ct. 446, 44 L. Ed. 500; Vickers v. Faubion (Tex. Civ. *304 App.) 224 S. W. 803; Dimpfel v. Wilson, 107 Md. 329, 68 A. 561, 13 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1180, 15 Ann. Cas. 753; Green v. McDowell, 210 Mo. App. 517, 242 S. W. 168; note 32 A. L. R. 1116; Atkeson v. Sovereign Camp, W. O. W., supra; Clark et al. v. Barney et al., 24 Okla. 455, 103 P. 598.

At the time the defendant entered into the marriage ceremony with Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
1925 OK CR 426, 238 P. 862, 31 Okla. Crim. 299, 51 A.L.R. 321, 1925 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 397, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harvey-v-state-oklacrimapp-1925.